Before Stonewall

By

William Mcgowan

Updated June 16, 2000 12:20 a.m. ET

"N ationwide ring preying on prominent deviates." So ran the headline of a front-page story in the New York Times on March 3, 1966, announcing the police crackdown on an extortion scheme. In hindsight, the headline language seems offensive. But what really makes the jaw drop is the scale of the scheme as well as the prestige of the men who were victimized by it.

According to authorities, the blackmailers had been operating for nearly 10 years, shaking down more than a thousand men and netting more than a million...